Gravel bin



Patented Jan. 19, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATE OFFICE.

MURT L. onnrri; or WARLAND, MONTANA, assrenon TO ROBERT aoinnrr, or

' swrssiaoran, OREGON.

GRAVEL 3m.

Application filed July 28, 1924. Serial No. 728,774.

To all whom it may concern.

,Be it known that 1, Mom L. ONnin, a citizen of the United State's,'residing at WVarland, in the county of Lincoln and State of Montana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gravel Bins, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description. i

In building gravel roads it is of paramount importance that the gravel, crushed stone or the like, which is to be spread on the road be maintained in a uniform miX- ture until ready for use. For instance, where gravel or the like is d'scharged from a chute into a lar e bin thelarger pebbles or coarser stones will roll downward to the sides of the bin while the finer material will cling together in a pyramid. Consequently, when the material is hauled to the road be in built or repairedcertain loads will contam practically all fine material while others consist almost entirely of the larger size stones, so that the theoretically uniform mixture actually consists of a patch of coarse and a patch of fine.

It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a bin or series of bins in which the gravel or crushed stone may be deposited and stored without piling the same in a single huge pyramid. To this end the invention consists of a series of compartment bins arranged in abutting relation combined with means whereby the gravel is fed to one compartment bin and as soon as that bin is filled the material continues to be fed to the next bin and so on until the entireseries of bins is filled.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the complete device.

Figure 9. is a plan view thereof with parts broken away.

Figure 3 is a section taken on l ne 33 of Figure 2, and

Figure 4c is a section taken on l ine -l of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawingsmore in detail the numeral 1 indicates a series of compartment bins arranged in abutting relation; and while four of these bins are shown on the drawing it will be obvious that a greater or s num er m be used as foun pp into as many small priate to the particular work at hand. Furthermore, instead of being built up of a plurality of individual compartment bins the apparatusmay be built up as a single structure divided b transverse partitions liins as may be desired.

Each of. thebins is composed of acentral compartment'2 and two oppositely dis posed side compartments 3, the latter being separated from the central compartment by vertical partitions provided with horizontal slots 4. and .5. As shown in Figure 3 of the drawings the slots i and 5 are located at dif ferent levels for a purpose to be described hereinafter. y

The bottom of eachcompartment bin is constructed of four downwardly inclined walls 6 which terminate in a discharge opening 7 controlledby a sliding shutter 8. As shown, each of the three compartments discharge at a common point but it will be obvious that this might be very well arranged so that either six or nine compartments could discharge at a common point. It might also be mentioned that the series of compartments just described is arranged at such height that trucks, carts, and the like may drive under the discharge spouts 7 and be loaded directly from the bins.

In order that each of the series of bins may be progressively loaded I have provided a carrier 10 for cooperation with a chute 11 which conveys the material such as gravel, crushed stone, or the like to the bins. The carrier 10 comprises a pair of sprocket chains 12 spaced a distance equal to the width of the center compartment and cooperating with pairs of sprocket wheels 13 mounted on shafts 14. The chains 12 carry a number of scrapers 0r slats 15 of steel which are suitably spaced along the chains. Under the upper section of the carrier is located a table or platform 16 which is of a width equal to that of the central compartment and which extends above the top of all the bins of the series except the last one.

From the structure just described it will be apparent that the material fed through chute 11 will pass on to the platform 16 and will be carried along this platform by the carrier 10 until it reaches the end of the platform; from thence it will fall into the central compartment of the last bin. As this compartment fills up to the slots 4 and 5 the material will overflow into the compartments 3, and when these compartments are filled the material will build up in the central compartment until it reaches the lower section of the carrier 10. The material in thecentral compartment forms in effect a floor for the lower section of the carrier and material piling up on this floor will be drawn by the scrapers 15 into the next central compartment and so on until all compartments of all the bins are filled.

In accordance with the patent statutes I have described what Inow believe tobe the best embodiment of the invention, but I do not wish to be understoodthereby aslimiting myself or the scope of theinvention, as many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention; all such I aim to include in the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: i i

1. In a device of the class described, a plurality of open-topped bins arranged in series and in juxtaposition, a platform spaced above said-bins and extendingover all but one of them, an endless conveyor arranged totravel along the length of these- .ries of bins andhaving its upper runtravelingover the surface ofsaid platform and its lower run travelmg over the open tops of said blns.

- ,avoava 2. In a device of the class described a plurality of open-topped, compartment bins arranged in series and in juxtaposition, a platform of a width equal to that of the central compartment and spaced above and extending over all but one of them, an endless conveyor arranged to travel along the length of the series of bins and having its upper run traveling over the surface of said platform and its lower run traveling over the open tops of said bins, the compartments of each bin being provided with means for permitting an overflow of material from one of the compartments to the other compartments.

8. In a device of the class described a plurality of open-topped compartment bins arranged in series and in juxtaposition, a platform of a width equal to that of thecentral compartment and spaced above and extending over all but one of them, an endless conveyor arranged to travel along the length of the series of bins and having its upper run traveling over the surface of said platform and its lower run traveling over the open tops of said bins, the compartments ofeach bin being provided with means for permitting an overflow of material from one of the compartments to the other compartments, and a valved discharge outlet at the bottom of each compartment bin.

MURT L. ONEIL. 

